Who hasn’t skipped class?
It might be too cold out, or maybe it’s too nice of a day to waste indoors. Perhaps you haven’t read, haven’t listened, haven’t cared, and don’t plan to start. Chances are you’re just tired. It really doesn’t matter. The alarm goes off and you ignore it. There’ll be no trek to Ballantine this morning. The art and culture of ancient Kush can wait. It sure isn’t happening today. And probably not tomorrow either.
And that’s all right. At school, a day off here and there can pass without much harm. Notes can be shared and outlines can be copied. I’d dare say that a “personal day” in the midst of a stressful season can be healthy. Sometimes, you need a bowl of Fruit Loops and a marathon of CSI to regain your sanity.
Though absenteeism and truancy are strongly discouraged at orientation – by the student leaders, the featured speakers, the tour guides, and the drama majors desperate enough to star in the musical written for incoming freshmen – you quickly learn they’re not that bad in moderation.
You just have to be smart.
Don’t go over the three- or five- day limit on excused absences in your classes. Don’t miss right before a test. And don’t try to push it; some classes just can’t be skipped. You can tell after the first few days, when it becomes apparent that a particular professor’s lectures are too rich to be properly condensed into bulleted points. By not dropping that class, you make a commitment to the course. You assume the responsibility to attend. And that type of obligation can’t be as easily dissolved.
Unless you’re a governor. Then, you can hop on a plane to Argentina, leave your state for six days, press the proverbial “snooze” button in the faces of those who granted you the right to lead them – and afterward insist that you can keep your job.
I’m sorry Gov. Sanford, but that’s not how it works.
As any college undergrad could tell you: Miss a quiz, get an F. You’ve failed as a governor. And it’s not just because you cheated on your spouse, covered it up, used government resources to facilitate rendezvous with your lover and were ultimately forced into public disgrace. That just makes you a politician.
It’s because you abandoned your post.
I must admit, it’d be foolish to assume that the absence of any one individual – even the governor – could totally topple a state’s government. We have well-designed systems with safeguards and succession plans in place to ensure the stability of our political bureaucracy.
Who could argue that our government’s not slow to change?
While your duties should have made you stay, I’m not worried that they wouldn’t have been fulfilled. I’m angry, not because of practical technicalities, but because of personal slight. You campaigned for support but didn’t return it. You asked the professor for an extension and then didn’t show up for a week. Don’t expect sympathy, because it isn’t coming.
Not today. And probably not tomorrow either.
Skipping out on the state
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